If the player characters are aware of Joe Lakono and consider him an antagonist, he’s following the road ahead of them. He’s setting up opportunities for trouble; letting the bandits find the magic wand to help them rob the train, for example, and putting roadblocks in their way if they’re going towards the city. He’ll try to get them to do something stupid (such as attack an innocent barmaid in Linden’s Lake) or to turn around and go somewhere else (such as the much more interesting-sounding Monster City).
Joe most likely didn’t take the train. He “walks” from place to place using the night road. He sends his familiar ahead of him. It can travel thirty miles an hour and of course travels “as the crow flies”. Then he looks through his familiar’s eyes to learn the area well enough to manifest the night road to it.
Lakono will attach spirits (that’s one of his specialties) to provide both misdirection and trouble. And whenever one of his “traps” is triggered, he has the specialty Spirit Channel and can make his presence felt in that area for up to nine minutes. This will also let him travel back to that location if he wants to, though it will take several hours, by night road.
If they desire to talk, Joe can use Branch of Truce (perhaps attaching it to his familiar so that he doesn’t even need to be in the area) to ensure civility, or even to goad them into hurting themselves by attacking either Joe or his familiar.
He stopped in Greenfield because it’s the first town. He stopped in Linden’s Lake because he knows the train always stops there—he learned that in Greenfield. He skipped Rainbow Falls and stopped in Aquestern and Silverwood. He stopped in Atchaeoli because it’s what a city should be, and then in Tupose and Glendale.
He’ll use Home Rule to pass through the abyss on his way to the city. If Joe is around, there needs to be clear evidence of Joe going this way, so that they know he went through the abyss.
What’s Joe up to?
Joe is the Hooded Goblin Mage. He came to Highland a century ago to weaken the tree and to acquire the tablet of war, in our game the stone of Clanricarde. When the stone disappeared from Highland, Joe tried to follow it, but could not. When he met Alvin Clanriquen at the gate of the crossroads, he returned to Highland for rumors of the stone, found none, but left spies in the Celtic lands should it resurface.
When he heard that someone was searching for the stone, he returned ostentatiously as Orlando Fontaine to learn as much as he could, and to flush out the adventurers seeking the stone. He learned that the stone was not there, but that an heir of Clanricarde was about to follow the stone on the road. He followed the road as well, one step ahead of them.
Joe wants all of the tablets, so that he can return them to Tawhiri and the worlds of the tree undone, their civilization leaking into the abyss.
